“Peaceful protesters don’t try to burn down federal courthouses or jails or the headquarters of a local police union, nor hurl rocks and bottles at cops, night after night for weeks on end — nor assault a police station: What’s going on in Portland is somewhere between riot and insurrection, and demands a strong federal response even if local officials are in denial…

“Questions do need asking about the feds’ tactics: Does the situation really require unmarked vehicles, and officers working without visible shield numbers or other clear ID or even uniforms? Yet the answers may be ‘yes and yes,’ if there are real concerns about law enforcers’ personal safety. Recent days have already seen the public release of some officers’ personal info — ‘doxing’ that invites harassment or worse at their homes… [But] the basic legal authority for the feds to act is beyond clear.”
Editorial Board, New York Post

“Wheeler says that federal law enforcement is further aggravating the situation and creating additional tensions where there shouldn’t be any. The problem with this assertion is that Portland protesters were acting aggressively before federal officers arrived in July. This has been going on for more than 57 days now. Protesters in the city were attacking local police officers and destroying private property long before the Trump administration sent the feds… If Wheeler wants federal officers to leave the city, then he must do what he should have done 57 days ago and put down these protests. Arrest violent agitators, investigate the groups behind them, and allow Portland’s officers to do their jobs.”
Kaylee McGhee, Washington Examiner

Some argue, “Right now, many of America’s cities are conducting social experiments in lawlessness, showing the rest of the country what happens when local leaders join calls to ‘defund the police’ and cower in the face of violence…

“In New York City, shootings during one week in June were up 358 percent over the previous year, while the number of police retirements has skyrocketed 411 percent — a vote of no confidence in the city’s left-wing leadership. In Atlanta, murders are up 86 percent. In Minneapolis, shootings are up 47 percent. In Philadelphia, shootings involving children are up 43 percent, and 96 percent of the victims are black. In Chicago, 106 people were shot during a single weekend in June…

“There is an argument for just letting those experiments play out. After all, we are told elections have consequences. Well, the people in those cities voted for weak Democratic mayors and city council members. Maybe if they experience the consequences of incompetent Democratic leadership, they’ll do what New Yorkers did in the 1990s and vote in tough-on-crime Republicans to restore law and order.”
Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post

In an interview, “[Black Police Officer Jakhary] Jackson said people of color will frequently come up to speak to him during protest to ask him what he thinks about the death of George Floyd or some other issue. But inevitably when he tries to engage with these people, ‘someone white comes up ‘F the police. Don’t talk to him.'’… Officer Jackson described some of the other [experiences] he’s had with protesters: ‘I had taken an explosive, I had been hit with a full beer can, a rock in my chest, frozen water bottle had hit me’…

“‘It says something when you’re at a Black Lives Matter protest; you have more minorities on the police side than you have in a violent crowd,’ Jackson said. He continued, ‘And you have white people screaming at black officers ‘you have the biggest nose I’ve ever seen.’ You hear these things and you go ‘Are these people, are they going to say something to this person?’ No. ‘And that’s just one example. Having people tell you what to do with your life, that you need to quit your job, that you’re hurting your community but they’re not even a part of the community. Once again you as a privileged white person telling someone of color what to do with their life.’”
John Sexton, Hot Air

“Americans have largely forgotten the hard-won gains made in public safety since 1992, during the last peak of violent crime. If crime rises to the level of a generation ago, we would suffer 14,261 more murders (almost double those murdered in 2018), 580,460 more robberies, and 636,038 more aggravated assaults every year. And these crimes would be concentrated in our urban centers, specifically in working-class and poor neighborhoods. Think about that the next time you see those young vanguards of the proletariat, armed with law degrees and Molotov cocktails, visiting violence upon a city, only to return to their expensive lofts with a city view before daybreak.”
Chuck DeVore, The Federalist